Just saw this (new?) page, linked from the
Early cancellation fee: minimum of $1100. Jesus H Christ.
Actually, hang on a minute. Here is the full text from that page:
[...]
So, if you cancel the contract the day after signing it, the penalty is $220 * 36 months = $7920.
The intent here is dubious, though; I don't understand the latter bit of the last sentence. A maximum of 400 what? Months? That's 33 years.
As much as we all want this device, I think the lesson here is clear: you're basically a retard if you sign a contract with this company. I get my home cable and internet from them, as well as my home phone, and consumer rape aside: I have had nothing but horrid experiences with this company.
The last time I moved, Rogers failed to properly transfer my account to my new address. Instead, some moron in their customer service department, created a new account at my new address and failed to cancel the account at my old address.
Then another customer support person, incorrectly assigned the disconnection order for my old address to my new address. So basically they came and hooked up my cable the day I moved, and then came and disconnected the day afterward.
It got even worse. They had trouble provisioning my old phone number for the new location, and some kind of crazy problem with their system prevented them from hooking up my phone line for three weeks after I moved. I have NO land line. I was using Skype over the internet for everything. it was a pain in the ass.
Then they gave me "free phone service for 8 months" to compensate me. Except of course, I saw one credit on my bill for one month, and then proceeded to get billed normally after that. So despite being promised 8 months, I got 1 month free.
As for my cable service, they gave me the month free, and promised me 8 months of all the specialty channels and HD service. Thanks! Except, once again I saw one credit on my bill, and then proceeded to get double-billed every month there after. Yes, I had a specialty pack they were charging me like $39 for... and then they were separately billing me like $49 for the ALL speciality channel package completely redundantly. This went unnoticed by me for months. Mainly because I was just too upset to deal with them, I gave them my credit card and they put me on automated billing.
And whatever happened to that old account they forgot to shut off at my old address? Well it got disconnected for nonpayment. And they somehow managed to send a collection agency looking for me... I owed them like $600 apparently.
Then I got on the phone with some senior Rogers rep who told me she couldn't do anything about it. I argued on the phone for about 45 minutes, trying to explain to her my previous horrors with their company, which she admittedly was able to reconcile from the CS records they had with me. But she claimed that there was nothing she could do about my old account, and that it was ultimately my responsibility to close it (my responsibility? I TRANSFERRED my services to a new address... I wasn't even aware I had a NEW account).
Anyways, fed up with dealing with the *******s, I offered to give her my credit card # immediately, pay the $600 that I didn't owe, and have her cancel ALL of my services with Rogers effective immediately, along with a threat to go to the media with the story.
She put me on hold for about 5 minutes, and came back and ultimately agreed to forgive the debt that I never owed.
All-in-all I've wasted too many hours of my life with this company.
I have a cellphone with Telus (who's customer service is impeccable), even if their prices--much like Rogers--leave something to be desired. Telus tends to have reasonable CSRs, who actually have a great deal of authority to make customers happy. They also don't make you hold for more than like 20 seconds with their wait time guarantee thing.
I'm not trying to pimp Telus here, but only to make a point: signing ANY sort of contract with Rogers that commits me to doing business with them for any period of time is a nightmarish thought for me.
Overpriced plan? Less minutes? Higher roaming charges? (I have fairly cheap North America roaming and calling with Telus -- and I travel quite a bit), Less data? (I have unlimited data on my Blackberry for $30), and having to deal with rude, arrogant CSRs? Sign me the f*ck up!
